MTN and the Burden of Transformational Leadership

By Atim Nkese Nkpubre

Last Friday, the 7th day of June, 2013 had started on a rather chaotic note in the mega city of Lagos, Nigeria. The early morning downpour which drenched the city and quite a few of its inhabitants didn’t help matters either. It was an awful combination. A Friday…and a rainy one! Hm. A normal Friday in Lagos is challenging enough, especially with its high traffic congestion occasioned by a mad rush of people either into the metropolis to wrap up business deals or out of it for a quieter weekend elsewhere. A rainy Friday could therefore easily become a recipe for disaster, and could be dreadful and almost nightmarish.

But in the Expo Hall of the famous Eko Hotel, located in the heart of Victoria Island, however, sat a crop of top Nigerian business and industry leaders who, characteristically, had braved the horrible traffic snarl, to participate in the MTN Leadership Forum. The forum was facilitated by Dr. Ram Charan, world-renowned business advisor, author, speaker and Harvard Professor.

As if oblivious of the chaos that the city was embroiled in, the seminar began on a bright and cheery note with a buffet breakfast session which lasted for half an hour after which the Chairman of MTN Nigeria, Mr. Pascal Dozie formally welcomed the guests. He explained the idea behind the leadership summit as part of MTN’s effort to lead a revolution of the Nigerian economy. Dozie spoke about the determination of MTN to remain a responsible corporate citizen that makes positive impact on the nation and its people. He ended his opening remarks by urging the captains of industry present to open up their minds for an animated and highly rewarding interaction with Dr. Charan.

Exploring the theme: “Private Sector as the Engine Room for Economic Growth”, Charan who has been described by Fortune magazine as the most influential consultant alive, spoke candidly to his audience for about an hour.  He shared useful insights garnered over three decades of hands-on experience and teaching with the exclusive gathering of Nigeria corporate titans,with the aim of provoking positive conversation that can help in growing the Nigerian economy.  “Leaders build nations,”he said, adding that leaders in the country’s private sector have the capacity to change the nation.

With a population of about 160 million people, Nigeria, he noted, has an enormous potential for the growth of businesses. Charan admonished the country’s business leaders not to restrict their planning to simply servicing the needs of the country’s population. Rather, they should broaden their horizon to include the larger population of about 300 million people on the African continent.   He advised that Nigerians should always think of building world-class companies, since that is what makes businesses to grow and thrive.

Charan , who has spent the past 35 years working with many top companies, including GE, Verizon, Bank of America  and Norvatis, emphasized that Nigeria is blessed with immensely talented people,  a large expanse of arable land and water and has no business remaining underdeveloped. He also spoke about the importance of learning and continuous learning as a way of preparing people for better attitude and physical conduct.

Dr. Charan who is known for cutting through the complexity of running a business in today’s fast changing environment to uncover the core business problem, also shared other useful insights with his upscale audience.” Identify the hurdles - that are before you and how to cross them,” he said, noting that there are hurdles that everyone, every nation and every business has to cross to be able to reach their goal.

“The leader’s greatest leverage is people,” he said, noting that identifying people, training people, putting them in the right job and giving them the right incentive were quite important for overall economic growth. According to Dr. Charan, “ with 500, 000 well trained and employable people things can create lasting economic change for a country.

The number and caliber of participants at the seminar was quite instructive and bore eloquent testimony to the reputation of its convener, MTN Nigeria and the ability of the company to create positive impact in the Nigerian economy. The forum was held in Abuja the previous Thursday.

In a brief chat with The Communicat at the end of the event, MTN’s Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Mr. Larry Annets described the Leadership Seminar as what MTN strategically does for its high value customers and the larger society, to inspire the Nigerian populace and help build capacity for economic growth and development.

According to Annets, the MTN Leadership Seminar was the fifth in the series of customer engagement that has featured notable business personalities such as Chris Gardner, Les Brown, David Plouffe and Farrah Gray.

The choice of Ram Charan, he said, was informed by his inspirational works in strategic business areas, especially in strategy execution even as  it was aimed at provoking  positive conversation  to help grow the Nigerian economy “hence the focus on CEOs and top government officials,”.Annets concluded